CRANE ON THE CASE: UPS charged me £441 to post my boat sail

I am an avid sailor and in March 2023 I sold a sail I no longer needed on Gumtree to someone on the other side of the country.

I packed it carefully and went to the website of package carrier UPS to pay and print the shipping label.

Based on the size of 80cm by 50cm and weight of 15.5 kilograms I paid £35 for postage, and tThe tarpaulin was picked up at my house by a UPS driver.

But shortly afterwards I discovered that UPS had charged an additional £441 to the bank card I had used to pay for the original postage.

UPS claimed I entered incorrect dimensions and charged me for a 40 kg package.

I contacted customer service and had the sail buyer confirm the dimensions and weight of the package as they received it.

I did receive a refund in early April, but only for £35. I have not heard anything since, despite contacting several times. Can you help? GF, by email.

Helen Crane from This is Money replies: You are a retiree and were hoping to make some extra money by selling this tarp, but UPS’s incompetence threw you off course.

You couldn’t fathom why the company charged you nearly £450 for sending a 15.5kg package – especially without warning.

To put that in context, it’s about the same weight as eight standard bricks, two large bowling balls, or a microwave oven. Not a small package, but very manageable for a courier.

I imagine you got seasick when you checked your bank account and discovered the hefty charge.

Since you sold the sail for £110, you had hundreds left.

You tried to navigate the choppy waters of UPS customer service, but unfortunately you didn’t get very far.

You told me that the company accused you of entering the wrong dimensions for your package – even though you have emails showing that you entered them correctly.

You even asked the buyer of your sail to confirm how big it was when it arrived, which he did.

But according to UPS, you had claimed that the package was 2 cm by 1 cm by 50 cm, but weighed 40 kg.

I can’t think of any item that would fit that description – postcard answers, please.

It looks like you managed to get someone at UPS to understand you because on April 5th you were told you would be refunded in full for the extra charges.

However, it is now almost three months later and that refund has never come.

I’m happy to say that when I got in touch with UPS, everything came together quickly.

It refunded you the incorrect charges and you told me it also offered you a £100 gesture of goodwill which you accepted.

A UPS spokesperson said, “Serving our customers is at the heart of everything we do. We will refund the costs and we apologize for any inconvenience.’

A clever idea of ​​a box of Sage

Reader Annemarie reached out to praise kitchen appliance retailer Sage for its “sensible” policy when it comes to returning faulty goods.

When her convection microwave, oven and air fryer broke down, she said she was “afraid” to return it because she didn’t keep the large box it came in.

Many of us suffer from box anxiety — and so do I, which is why the huge package my TV arrived in has taken up most of my under-stairs closet for the past year.

Some retailers will accept returns without the original packaging, especially if the item is faulty – but you don’t have to, and some will insist.

So Annemarie was glad it wasn’t a problem with Sage.

“Sage delivered the new oven and told me to pack the old one in the new packaging and then contact DPD to pick it up,” she said. “They took a deposit that would be returned when they got the oven back.

‘How wise. How many of us have the space to store Styrofoam boxes that contain our countless devices?’

It’s good to see some serious outside the box thinking – or in this case, inside the box.